Consumers go mobile for news

Majority of Brits now use mobile devices and social media for daily news

The majority of news is consumed on social media and using mobile devices, according to new research. Just over three quarters of Brits now consume their news digitally.

Online is playing a greater part in the way consumers get their news than ever before, the study from The Digital Hub, a new newswire that supplies news copy, images, audio and video ready to use, has revealed.

Altogether, 76% of Britains use digital media to read or view the news each day, with 70% of people saying social media has made it easier to access news, and 34% regularly clicking through to news stories via social networking sites.

The study of 7,500 Brits also uncovered a healthy demand for news, with the average person accessing six media stories each day, with almost one in ten consuming more than 16 stories a day.

The research also found that people are becoming better trained at filtering out news that matters to them, with friends and social media influencers now just as important for sourcing news as media professionals.

Almost a quarter of people say they have friends or follow people who they regard as authorities for news and almost one in five (19%) say they trust their friends to source news. Some 56% of people say they do not feel bombarded by media, with more than a third (36%) saying they feel more in control of the news they receive since owning a smartphone or tablet and only 11% saying they feel less in control.

Altogether, 59% of Facebook users said they watch news videos and 44% said they are most likely to share videos on the social network. Meanwhile, 41% of Twitter users regularly share news videos and 52% of Google+ users say the same.

Jack Peat, head of digital at 72Point, who conducted the research on behalf of, said: “Our Media Consumption report demonstrated that the way we consume and interact with media is undergoing a seismic change.

“News is predominantly consumed on mobile devices and discovered socially, which means there is a thirst for more digestible content that can be delivered quickly with maximum impact. If news consumption is changing, then the way we deliver news has to change too,” he concluded.

About Smart Chimps

Smart Chimps is the creation of freelance editor, writer and media trainer, Heather McLean. Heather has been involved in telecoms journalism since 2001, specialising in mobile since 2002. Find out more